Legal health check

Find out what you have actually signed

A structured review of your contracts and commercial documents, with a prioritised list of what to fix. £1,500 plus VAT.

Email me about a health check

I carry out a legal health check of a business's contracts and commercial documents for a fixed fee of £1,500 plus VAT, delivered in fifteen working days, with a written report and a prioritised action list. I am Geoffrey Caesar, a solicitor of England and Wales admitted in 2008, based in London and acting for businesses across England and Wales.

Most established businesses have accumulated their legal position rather than chosen it. Terms from one era, a shareholders agreement that was drafted but never signed, contractor arrangements with no IP assignment, three different sets of customer terms in circulation, and nobody entirely sure which version is on the website.

It usually surfaces at the worst possible time: during due diligence on a sale, an investment round, or a claim. A health check surfaces it now, when fixing it is cheap and unhurried.

What it costs

  • Legal health check, £1,500 plus VAT. Full review and prioritised report. Fifteen working days.
  • Health check plus fixes, from £3,000 plus VAT. The review together with the highest priority remediation work, quoted itemised.

The larger package can be paid in milestones. The report is yours whether or not you instruct me to fix anything.

What you get

  • A review of your customer and supplier contracts, including which version is actually in use
  • Ownership documents: shareholders agreement, articles, share register and any option arrangements
  • Employment and contractor documentation, with particular attention to IP assignment
  • Intellectual property: what the business owns, what it licenses and what it merely uses
  • Data protection documentation and your position with key suppliers
  • Website terms, privacy notices and anything you rely on to contract online
  • AI tools in use and whether your contracts permit them
  • A written report rating every issue by risk and by cost to fix, with fixed-fee quotes for each remediation item and no obligation to instruct me for any of them
  • A 60 minute session to work through the findings

What is not included

  • The remediation work itself, which is quoted separately and itemised
  • Financial or tax due diligence
  • Regulatory compliance beyond contract documentation
  • Litigation risk assessment on live disputes

How long it takes

Fifteen working days from payment, once you have sent me the documents. It typically takes two to three hours of your time in total.

How to instruct me

  1. Email me. Send any relevant documents, or three or four lines describing the situation and your deadline. You do not need to prepare a brief.
  2. I confirm the scope, the price and the timetable. In writing, usually the same working day, and if a short call would help I will offer one at no charge. I then invoice you, and the work starts once the invoice is paid. Larger pieces of work can be split into milestone payments if that suits you better.
  3. I deliver on the agreed date. With a call or a follow-up exchange included, so you are not paying again to understand the advice.
✅
The price is fixed in writing before anything starts. It does not move afterwards unless you ask me to do something outside the agreed scope, and I would quote that separately first.

Why instruct me directly

A law firm has premises, partners, support staff, marketing and a compliance department, and every hour it bills has to carry a share of all of it. I have none of that. You are paying for the lawyer and nothing else.

  • Senior attention as standard. The person who reads your contract is the person you emailed. Nothing is delegated to a trainee.
  • In-house and private practice experience. I know what a clause does to a business six months later, not just what it says.
  • No onboarding process. Email, scope, fixed price, invoice, work. There is no client portal to register with and no forms to complete.
  • Better value for the same expertise. Without a firm's overheads, senior time costs less, which is why fixed fees at this level are possible at all.
  • Fixed prices, published. You know the number before you commit. I publish them because cost uncertainty is the main reason businesses do not take advice they need.

Who this is for

  • You are two years or so from a sale or an investment round
  • You have been trading for several years and nobody has ever looked at the whole picture
  • You have inherited responsibility for a business somebody else built
  • An insurer, buyer or investor has started asking questions you cannot answer

Questions I am often asked

£1,500 plus VAT for the full review and prioritised report, delivered in fifteen working days. If you want the highest priority items fixed as well, that starts at £3,000 plus VAT and is quoted itemised so you can see what you are paying for.

What if the report finds a lot of problems?

It usually does, and most of them are minor. The value is in the ranking rather than the list, because it tells you which two or three things genuinely matter and lets you ignore the rest with confidence.

We are planning to sell in a couple of years. Is this useful?

It is the single most useful thing you can do at that horizon. Legal problems found during due diligence cost you price, or a chunk of the consideration held back in escrow. Found two years out, they are usually an afternoon of paperwork.

How much of our time does it take?

An initial call, then sending me documents, then the findings session. Typically two to three hours of your time in total.

Do we have to instruct you to fix what you find?

No. Several clients have taken the report and worked through it themselves or with their existing adviser. That is a perfectly good outcome and the report is written so that somebody else can act on it.

About me

I am Geoffrey Caesar. I have worked on commercial contracts since 2001, first in industry and then in private practice, so I have sat on both sides of the table: as the in-house lawyer who has to live with the contract, and as the external adviser who drafts it.

  • Solicitor of England and Wales, admitted 2008. SRA ID 483394.
  • Practising as an SRA-regulated freelance solicitor under regulation 10.2(b) of the SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations. Practice SRA number 666497.
  • Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and authorised to provide all legal services, including reserved legal activities.
  • Called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 2005.
  • Working on commercial contracts since 2001, in-house and in private practice.
  • Based in London, acting for businesses across England and Wales.
  • Professional indemnity insurance in place with a limit of £1,000,000 for each claim, with defence costs in addition. Details on request.
  • I do not hold client money.

Two things you should know about instructing a freelance solicitor rather than a law firm. My professional indemnity insurance is not on the SRA's minimum terms and conditions; alternative arrangements are in place instead, and I will give you the details on request. And you can still apply to the SRA Compensation Fund for losses caused by dishonesty or a failure to account for money. Everything else, including the Code of Conduct, the SRA Principles and the Legal Ombudsman, applies to me exactly as it applies to any other solicitor.

✉️
Send me any relevant documents or a short description of the problem. I will reply with a fixed price and a date, usually the same working day.
Email me

Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.